Proclamation 4730—Teacher Day, USA

The great strength of America lies in its people, educated in the most comprehensive and open system of public education the world has ever known.

We have an enormous stake in this system, and the key to it is the American teacher. The men and women who staff our schools spend countless hours inspiring, encouraging, informing, and preparing young people for the future. Their hard work is a lifelong gift. Behind every successful adult, there is usually a teacher who was an inspiration for excellence.

Sadly, there has never been a national observance of the profound debt we owe our Nation's teachers. There is no time each year when we can bestow the individual recognition, honor, and encouragement our teachers richly deserve.

Now, Therefore, I, Jimmy Carter, President of the United States of America, do hereby designate March 7, 1980, as "Teacher Day, United States of America."

I ask all Americans to communicate their personal appreciation, by word and deed, to present and former teachers who have enriched their lives.

In Witness Whereof, I have hereunto set my hand this fifth day of March, in the year of our Lord nineteen hundred and eighty, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and fourth.

JIMMY CARTER